Estimation of diastolic intraventricular pressure gradients from color Doppler M-mode spatiotemporal velocities: analytical Euler equation solution

The importance of left ventricular diastolic function continues to drive experimental efforts to understand underlying processes involved in filling dynamics and challenge researchers to develop improved methods to evaluate cardiac function. Diastolic intraventricular pressure gradients can be estimated from spatiotemporal velocity distributions obtained from color Doppler M-mode echocardiography. The Euler equation describes incremental pressure changes as a function of time-varying velocities along a streamline. Integration of these local pressure gradients allows comparison of pressure at different levels within the ventricle. The authors have demonstrated that the pressure drop at the apex was more and occurred earlier when compared to mid-ventricular and basal pressures. The quantification of these intraventricular gradients may assist in the evaluation of diastolic function.<>